The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated a 2016 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval of three natural gas pipeline segments in the Southeast.
Similar to the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the vast majority of the gas transported via the Southeast Market Pipeline Project, which runs through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, would be burned in gas-fired power plants. The decision stated that, “at a minimum, FERC should have estimated the amount of power-plant carbon emissions the pipelines will make possible.”
FERC will now be required to undertake a new environmental impact statement for the Southeast Market Pipeline Project. SELC calls on FERC to do the same for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project.
“This decision further highlights the fact that FERC must go back and revise its draft EIS of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline,” said Southern Environmental Law Center Senior Attorney, Greg Buppert. “This ruling now makes it clear that FERC cannot simply state that it cannot know the level of greenhouse gas emission of the ACP, or any other pipeline, and simply move on.”
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